Biographies Masthead


[Home]  [Sutta Indexes]  [Glossology]  [Site Sub-Sections]


 

Personalities of the Buddhist Suttas

Index

[AN I:192] At the top, Beggars, of those of my Beggars who has The Power of the Dibba Cakkhu is Anuruddha.

Anuruddha

DPPN: First cousin of the Buddha ... He was the son of the Sakyan Amitodana and brother of Mahanama. [with his cousin Bhaddiya] they went with Ananda, Bhagu, Kimbila, Devadatta and their barber Upali, to the Blessed One at the Anupiya Mango Grove and were ordained. Before the rainy season was over Anuruddha acquired the Dibba Cakkhu ...

He then received from Sariputta, as topic of meditation, the eight thoughts of a great man. He mastered seven, but could not learn the eighth [This Dhamma is for the precise and for one who delights in exactness; this Dhamma is not for the diffuse or for him who delights in diffuseness.] The Buddha, being aware of this, visited him and taught it to him. Thereupon Anuruddha developed insight and realized arahantship ...

Anuruddha appears in the suttas as an affectionate and loyal comrade-bhikkhu, full of affection to his kinsman, the Buddha ...

Anuruddha was present when the Buddha died at Kusinara, and knew the exact moment of his death [I hear as a consequence of his having developed attention to in-breathing and out-breathing to a high degree — he was able to determine the exact last breath] ... Anuruddha was foremost in consoling the monks and admonishing them as to their future course of action. Later, at the First Council, he played a prominent part and was entrusted with the custody of the Anguttara Nikaya [The Book of the Gradual Sayings]

In one of the verses ascribed to Anuruddha in the Theragatha it is said that for twenty-five years he did not sleep at all, and that for the last thirty years of his life he slept only during the last watch of the night.

His death took place in Veluvagama in the Vajji country, in the shade of a bamboo thicket.

 


 

References:

AN 8.30
SN 5.52.8 (and all the suttas in the Anuruddhasamyutta.